


Happy Together: A Simothan Story

by magsamost



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band), the seventeen family singers
Genre: AU, M/M, Original Character(s), Original Universe, Suburban AU, Tumblr AU, kpop, seventeen au, suburban AU kpop
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 14:56:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8757043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magsamost/pseuds/magsamost
Summary: Simon (Hoshi) and Jonathan (Jooheon) are best friends, both harboring romantic feelings for the other, but not saying anything for fear of rejection. Can these two overcome their meddling families, angry friends, and general misunderstandings to be together?





	1. Not in That Way

**Author's Note:**

> Named after the 1967 song by the Turtles 
> 
> From Suburban AU blog: [The Seventeen Family Singers](http://theseventeenfamilysingers.tumblr.com/)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Simon and Jonathan both have trouble sleeping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters featured in this chapter: [Simon](http://theseventeenfamilysingers.tumblr.com/post/148179950814/character-introduction-simon), [Jonathan](http://theseventeenfamilysingers.tumblr.com/post/149817394219/johnathan), [Caleb](http://theseventeenfamilysingers.tumblr.com/post/154058313464/caleb), [William](http://theseventeenfamilysingers.tumblr.com/post/148180201079/character-introduction-william), and [Johnny](http://theseventeenfamilysingers.tumblr.com/post/148180058919/character-introduction-johnny)

Simon lay in bed staring at the ceiling. Johnny’s words were playing in his head over and over again. ‘I heard that Jonathan and Annie are dating! How weird is that? She used to date Josh!’ He looked to where Johnny was peacefully sleeping across the room and scowled. Fuck you, he thought, although he knew his brother wasn’t really at fault. The only one Simon could blame was himself. How could you have been so stupid? Did you really think you had a chance with him? It was because of William, he decided. William was at fault. If William hadn’t shocked everyone by going out with the prettiest boy in school then Simon wouldn’t have been so uncharacteristically optimistic. He redirected his glare towards William, or his general direction. William slept with so many fancy pillows that you couldn’t even find him; it’s like he thought of himself as the prince of Arabia or some shit. Fuck you, he thought angrily at the pillow pile. He didn’t really mean that either, but it did kind of make him feel better.  
He redirected his gaze back to the white plaster above him and pictured Annie and Jonathan together. Them kissing, them holding hands, Jonathan abandoning him at lunch to sit with Annie, Annie being invited everywhere with them, him having to watch them cuddle, him picking out a suit to wear to their wedding, Annie becoming pregnant, him meeting the kid for the first time, him looking at Jonathan and Annie having everything that he wanted. He closed his eyes. Many of his nights in the past year had been filled with images of dates and cuddles, kissing and touching, rings and tuxedos, cribs and adoption papers, but none of those images had featured Annie. Simon never cries. He reminds himself of this and then reminds his quickly moistening eyes. They don’t listen.  
…………………………

 

Jonathan’s smile is lit up in the dark room by the light from his phone screen.  
“What are you smiling about?” Caleb teased “More pictures of Simon?”  
“Shut up” Jonathan was annoyed that his daydreaming had been interrupted.  
Caleb made kissy sounds until Jonathan flipped him off and turned around.  
“I’m just saying, bro. It’s obvious that you like him. Just ask him out or something”  
“Absolutely not” Jonathan said “It would just freak him out. He doesn’t even know I’m gay. Plus, he’s not gay so it’s not like I have a chance”  
Caleb chuckled. “I don’t know about that… no one thought you were gay and yet here you are, hopelessly pining over your male best friend”  
Jonathan turned around and threw a pillow in Caleb’s direction.  
“Fuck you” he said with a scowl.  
“Whatever, jokes on you, now I have three pillows and you only have one.”  
Jonathan put in his headphones and played his ‘Simon’ playlist. He was definitely not obsessed, he assured himself. It was just a little crush.  
As he flipped through the selfies he’d taken with Simon he sighed. He knew he was an idiot. Falling in love with your straight best friend is one of the classic mistakes that every homosexual learns about. He must have been a slow learner.  
Sam Smith knows what I’m talking about, he thinks as the next song comes on. He flips through the pictures slowly, taking his time to look at Simon’s face, and into his eyes. He doesn’t need to, he has it memorized. If he had any drawing skill he’d probably be able to draw a photorealistic portrait indistinguishable from the real Simon.  
He drifted to sleep with his phone in hand and the song leaking into his dreams. 

 

I'd never ask you cause deep down  
I'm certain I know what you'd say  
You'd say I'm sorry believe me  
I love you but not in that way


	2. Count on Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Simon gets "sick"
> 
> (Title from song by Bruno Mars)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters featured in this chapter: [Simon](http://theseventeenfamilysingers.tumblr.com/post/148179950814/character-introduction-simon), [Jonathan](http://theseventeenfamilysingers.tumblr.com/post/149817394219/johnathan), [Helen](http://theseventeenfamilysingers.tumblr.com/post/148179238654/character-introduction-helen), [Charles](http://theseventeenfamilysingers.tumblr.com/post/148179403204/character-introduction-charles), [James](http://theseventeenfamilysingers.tumblr.com/post/148179823184/character-introduction-james), [Caleb](http://theseventeenfamilysingers.tumblr.com/post/154058313464/caleb), and [Annie](http://theseventeenfamilysingers.tumblr.com/post/149612068249/annie)

Simon’s phone buzzed loudly from the coffee table, piercing the haze of boredom surrounding him. He had spent the last two hours and eighteen minutes lying on the sofa and staring at the ceiling, and it wasn’t even an interesting ceiling. His mom insisted that everything in the living room had to be completely pristine because that’s where visitors sat, and they must “make a good impression” on everyone that comes in the house. Any part of the house that people saw had to be perfect, which apparently didn’t include children laying on the couch.  
“Simon!”  
He looked at the doorway, annoyed. He had been just about to check his phone when his mother’s yelling had interrupted him. As soon as their eyes met she took a deep breath in preparation for more yelling.  
“How many times do I have to tell you?! This room is the most important room in the house, and we can’t have children lying around in their dirty pajamas!”  
“Who has dirty pajamas?” James’ voice floated coyly from behind the TV.  
“Jesus fucking Christ, James! How long have you been over there?” Simon hadn’t left the room in hours and he hadn’t heard anyone come or go; everyone else was out doing things, probably having fun.  
“Been where? In the room or behind the TV?” James raised an eyebrow  
“In the room”  
“Who can say? Time is a construct of the human mind.”  
“Ok Socrates, can you get the fuck out of here please?”  
“SIMON!” His mother yelled.  
Simon had hoped she’d left to go yell at someone else, but luck just wasn’t on his side.  
“First you lay your grubby body all over the furniture, and then you bully your brother?!”  
Simon rolled his eyes  
“Mom, it’s a sofa, you’re supposed to put your body on it, that’s what they make it for.”  
“Don’t you sass me! Remember: I brought you into this world--”  
“And I can take you out” Simon finished mockingly.  
“That’s it! Go to your room!” She looked at James “And take your brother with you!”  
“What? Why? Look at him!”  
James was now across the room smelling one of the throw pillows.  
“Just do it, Simon!” She said as she marched into the kitchen, where her husband thought he was getting away with eating cookies for breakfast.  
“Okay James, let’s go.” Simon said, motioning to his brother.  
“Gladly.” As they walked towards the staircase, James pulled something out of his pocket.  
“Hey that’s my phone! How did you even get that? It was right next to me!”  
James just winked. “By the way, Jonathan texted you.”  
Simon had totally forgotten about his phone vibrating, and now hurried to grab it from James’ hand. He hadn’t seen Jonathon much lately, Simon had been trying to stay away, hoping that maybe if they spent less time together his stupid, girly feelings might calm down, but now he just missed his best friend a lot.  
“You know what they say… distance makes the heart grow fonder” James said, like he had somehow figured out how to read minds.  
Simon glared at him.  
“There’s something wrong with you, you know that?” He said, ascending the stairs without his brother.  
“There’s something wrong with everything, brother. Nothing has nothing wrong with it, things are designed to be wrong or else everything wouldn’t be a thing, and if everything was nothing, nothing would consume us.” James said after him, earning an annoyed sigh from Simon.  
Simon entered his room, making sure to shut the door fully behind him. He sat on his bed and checked his texts. James was right, Jonathan had texted him.

He did wanna hang. He really really did. He really missed spending time with Jonathan, and it was getting harder and harder to avoid him. ‘Well…’ he thought, ‘It’s not like avoiding him is working anyway..’ He picked up his phone to reply.

Suddenly, Simon did not want to hang. He didn’t think he could handle hanging out with Jonathan and Annie together. They’d probably kiss and hold hands and all that shit. He shuddered in disgust. He definitely couldn’t go.  
Now, though, he had a problem. He had already agreed to hang out and if he backed out now it would seem really suspicious. He tried to think of ideas. Maybe he could say that he needed to do chores that he totally forgot about? No. Simon always needed to do chores, and it’s never stopped him from going out before. Maybe he could say that he suddenly lost the use of his legs? No. He’d have to come up with a reason, plus, he’d probably have to continue on the charade in school on monday, and he is not good at using wheelchairs, as he discovered last year after him and Jonathan were scaling the roof of his house. Maybe he could say that he’s in love with Jonathan and he can’t bear to see him with Annie? No. Absolutely not.  
He was drawn out of his thoughts by his phone going off again. It was Jonathan. No more time to come up with excuses. He just said the first thing that came to his head.

Simon could not believe that Jonathan bought that lie. It was probably the most obvious excuse he’d ever come up with.

That wasn’t good.Jonathan could not come over. First of all, he wasn’t sick, and second of all, having Jonathan at his house taking care of him would not help him with his crush situation.

Shit. He had ten minutes at most to look convincingly ill. Luckily, he already had his pajamas on and he hadn’t brushed his hair or teeth that day. On the other hand, he didn’t really want Jonathan to see him like this. He wasn’t even wearing deodorant.  
Shit. Well, it wasn’t like he had a chance with him anyway. He did however, wash his armpits in the sink, spray some old spice on them, and put on a clean set of pajamas. Now it was time to splash some water on his forehead and rub his eyes to make them look red.

 

 

Jonathan pulled up to Simon’s house with an arsenal of sick-person necessities. He had stopped at CVS on his way and bought soup, ginger ale, an ice pack, a hot water bottle, and all the types of medicine they had; Simon hadn’t really been specific about his symptoms.  
Honestly, he hadn’t really felt that bad about leaving Annie and Caleb. He loved his brother, and Annie was one of his best friends, but he hadn’t actually talked to Simon in four days and he was really worried. He had thought that maybe Simon was avoiding him because he somehow found out about Jonathan’s feelings for him, or just his sexuality in general, but now he was relieved to find out that Simon was just sick.  
As he got out of the car he saw Simon’s mom in the front yard, watering her vegetable garden.  
“Oh! Jonathan! What a nice surprise!”  
“Hello Ms.--”  
“Oh please” She interrupted “how many times do I have to tell you? Call me Helen.”  
“Ok...Helen” Jonathan did not like calling her by her first name. It was like calling his teacher by her first name, it just felt wrong.  
“Are you here to see Simon?”  
“Yeah, he said he wasn’t feeling well”  
Helen looked a little surprised. “I guess that explains his behavior recently. He’s been lazing around even more than usual. At least he’s not getting into any trouble.”  
“Yup” Jonathan said, rocking back and forth on his heels.  
He really wanted to just go inside and find Simon, and Helen could talk for a very long time. Luckily, Simon’s dad walked out of the house with a glass of wine and some strawberries.  
“For my lovely wife.” He said approaching Helen and kissing her on the cheek. She giggled and kissed him, still holding the food.  
“Gross” Jonathan said under his breath and went inside to find Simon.

 

The door to Simon, William, and Johnny’s room was closed.  
“Hey Si, you in there?” He shouted at the mahogany paneling.  
“No” Simon’s voice sounded rough and strained.  
Jonathan slipped in and shut the door behind him. Simon was curled up under the blankets, facing the wall; only the top of his head was visible.  
“You’re not a very good liar.” He said to the tuft of hair sticking out from under the covers.  
“No one’s home, leave a message at the beep”  
“Dude that doesn’t even make sense, you must really be sick, usually you’re smarter than that” Usually Jonathan would try not to compliment Simon too much, lest he find out about his crush, but he seemed less-threatening all bundled up. He was probably too sick to really notice anything.  
Jonathan sighed and walked over to Simon’s bed and sat down. Simon made a noise of resignation and pulled the covers down to his chin, revealing his face. His hair was messy, he was sweaty, and his eyes were really red, but he still looked beautiful. Even though it would make him sick, Jonathan wanted nothing more than to kiss him right then.  
He scolded himself for thinking that; his friend was sick and here he was thinking about making out with him. ‘Pull yourself together, Jonathan’ he thought to himself.  
“Um…. Jonathan…. You in there?” Simon said, looking at him strangely.  
Jonathan realized that he had been staring at his friend’s face for far too long and looked away suddenly.  
“Sorry...just...spaced out” He said, hoping he sounded believable, then quickly changed the subject “I brought you some stuff.”  
“What kind of stuff”  
“Sick stuff”  
“Like sick as in cool or sick as in what I am right now”  
“The second one, but I would argue that you’re always the first one” Honestly, what the fuck was wrong with him. He needed to stop.  
Simon raised his eyebrows. “Thanks?...” he said, seeming confused.  
“So what are your symptoms?” Jonathan said, deciding to go into full doctor mode.  
“Um...I don’t know. I have a headache, I’m sweaty, my throat hurts, umm, I’m dizzy, my eyes are watering, my nose is clogged up,”  
“Wow that’s a lot of stuff. I’ll see what I can do” Jonathan started digging through his bag and pulling out pill bottle by pill bottle, carefully reading the labels. Once he was satisfied, he put three on the bedside table and the rest back in his bag. “Take these” he said, pouring one of each pill on the table, and pulled out a water bottle from his bag.  
“Am I supposed to take these together?” Simon said, sounding concerned.  
“Of course” Jonathan actually hadn’t thought of that, but what’s the worst that could happen?  
Simon downed the pills and looked at Jonathan expectantly. “I don’t feel any better”  
“Well that’s because they haven’t kicked in yet” Jonathan said mockingly. Then his eyes widened. “Wait! I forgot to ask you! Do you have a fever?”  
“Umm… I don’t think so”  
“Where’s your thermometer?”  
“We don’t have one. Dad accidentally broke it trying to take Chad’s temperature.”  
“How do you break a thermometer”  
“He kept trying to stick it in his ear when it was actually the kind that goes in your mouth.”  
“Wow. Ok. Well… I’ll have to do it the way my dad taught me” Jonathan didn’t want to do this, it felt too...intimate, but he needed to make sure Simon didn’t need to go to the hospital. “Sit up.” He tried to make it a command, but it came out sounding more like a question. Luckily, Simon obeyed.  
Tentatively, Jonathan grabbed him by the nape of his neck and pulled Simon’s face towards his own.  
“Umm….” Simon sounded nervous, and his face was turning pink.  
This was a bad idea, Jonathan thought, his own heart beating rapidly. He sucked in a breath and pressed their foreheads together. He avoided looking into Simon’s eyes, afraid of what he might see.  
“You see…” He explained. “If you feel someone’s forehead with your hand, you can’t tell if it’s too hot because hands are usually a different temperature than heads… but if you put your heads together….” he trailed off, overwhelmed by their proximity. He realized that he wasn’t even paying attention to Simon’s potential fever. He willed himself to focus. Simon’s forehead didn’t feel that hot, but he couldn’t really tell because his own face was burning up. He decided that Simon didn’t have a fever, but he still didn’t pull away. He couldn’t. His eyes were closed and he was focusing intently on everything he felt. His hand, still on Simon’s neck, no longer a firm grip, just resting lightly. He could feel Simon’s soft hair under his fingers and he wanted so much to caress it. He felt the contact between their foreheads. Simon’s was damp with sweat, but he didn’t find it gross like he would with anyone else. He felt their hot breath mingle between them, their mouths only inches apart. If he wanted to he could lean in and touch their lips together, and he wanted to.  
He pulled back sharply. He had almost made a huge mistake. He almost took advantage of his sick best friend. He felt guilt rush over him.  
Simon was still sitting next to him, now looking at him with confusion.  
“I’ll make you some soup” Jonathan said suddenly. He got up, grabbed his bag and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.  
As soon as the door shut, he took a deep breath. He felt cold. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. ‘That was close’ he thought, ‘too close.’ Simon had been vulnerable. His sickness probably made him too dazed to even think to pull away. He knew he should leave, but Simon still needed him, and he did promise there’d be soup. He inhaled sharply and walked down the stairs toward the kitchen. He would make the soup, give it to Simon, and then go home and try to evaluate his current situation.  
As he entered the kitchen he was glad to find it empty. He didn’t even want to think about how uncomfortable it would be to talk to Simon’s parents after just having almost molested him.  
When he got back to Simon’s room with the soup, he was surprised to find the boy asleep. It must have been the allergy medication, he didn’t get the non-drowsy formula. He softly put the bowl on the bedside table and looked at his friend. He was sleeping on his back with his face turned to the side. Jonathan couldn’t help it. He leaned down and pulled the blankets up to his chin, and brushed a stray wisp of hair out of his closed eyes. Caleb was right; he had it bad.  
As he walked out the door he thought he heard Simon say something, but he couldn’t quite make it out. It sounded like “Jonathan”, but that was probably just wishful thinking. His friend definitely didn’t dream about him.


End file.
